Attacks may transform the president and presidency

Associated Press

Published Monday, September 09, 2002

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In the year since, terrorism has transformed Bush's presidency. He tabled much of his domestic agenda to secure a bigger Pentagon budget and broader powers for federal police. He is pursuing a catchall Department of Homeland Security and forged new alliances with foreign countries. And he has imposed an unprecedented policy allowing the U.S. military to wage war without provocation.

"The attacks have given the president and our entire country an overriding mission," said Karen Hughes, one of Bush's closest advisers.

Another Bush confidant, Karl Rove, looks to the past to put Bush's challenge into context. "Lincoln had his Civil War. Franklin Roosevelt had World War II. Kennedy and Johnson -- their wars," he said. History gave Bush a new direction for his presidency and a popularity that made voters forgiving of his domestic policy lapses.

As U.S. troops fought in Afghanistan, Bush's plans to privatize parts of Social Security, improve prescription drug coverage, reform election laws and expand the role of religion in government services faltered. Government deficits exploded, compared with surpluses during the Clinton years.

Eleven months after the first bombs fell in Afghanistan, the United States is spending $2 billion a month on the war. Some 8,000 U.S. troops are in duty in Afghanistan and an additional 55,000 U.S. forces are in the region supporting the war. Bush signed the USA Patriot Act, allowing federal police to detain thousands of aliens deemed threats to national security. The FBI was given new powers to tap telephone calls, demand records from bookstores and libraries, and enter places of worship.

Bowing to pressure, he proposed a Department of Homeland Security to consolidate scores of agencies and 170,000 employees under one Cabinet secretary. Bush insists the department will not increase the size of government, but some lawmakers -- many in his own party -- are dubious.

He has developed two new foreign policy doctrines. The first, previewed in his national address hours after the attacks, assumes that any country harboring terrorists is an enemy of the United States.